WUXI, Oct. 31, 2026 — Wuxi University of Technology (WXUT) hosted a sub-forum on Sino-foreign cooperation in vocational education at the 27th China Annual Conference for International Exchange (CACIE), held in Beijing from October 29 to 31.
Titled "Industry-Education Integration as the Foundation for Vocational Education's International Development," the forum drew leaders, experts and overseas partners to discuss how Chinese-foreign cooperative programmes in vocational colleges can move from expansion to quality.
Gong Fanghong, Secretary of the CPC Party Committee of WXUT, addressed the forum, which was moderated by Li Xiang, Party Secretary of the university's Ireland College.
Gong said opening up education is a pillar of Chinese modernization and an essential path for vocational education to upgrade, sharpen its quality and reach global markets. The sector, he noted, has shifted from scaling up to a stage defined by standardised governance, deeper substance, two-way empowerment and the export of Chinese standards. WXUT, he added, will keep improving its "bringing in" work, strengthen its "going global" efforts and promote Chinese vocational experience abroad alongside partner institutions at home and overseas.
In the keynote session, Wang Qingguo, Vice President of Changsha Social Work College, spoke on building substance into Sino-foreign programmes against the backdrop of industry-education integration; Tang Qianting, who leads the assessment team at Pearson Greater China, addressed how standardised international language assessment can underpin quality; and Chen Jiangcheng, Vice President of Fuzhou Melbourne Polytechnic, shared his institution's experience in rooting programmes in industry, bridging Chinese and foreign practice and serving outbound cooperation.
A roundtable on the opportunities, bottlenecks and way forward for such programmes brought together Professor Wu Jianli, Director of the Research Center for Quality Assurance in Cross-border Education at South China Normal University; Liu Jiao, head of government relations at Pearson China; Chen Jundong, General Manager of Vocational Education Services for Greater China at TÜV Rheinland; and Qiu Xiaohua, Dean of the Waikato International College at Jinhua University of Vocational Technology. The panel focused on policy compliance, curriculum quality, Sino-foreign coordination and two-way openness, reaching common ground on project filing, the introduction of international curricula and evaluation systems, joint training mechanisms, and linking inbound and outbound cooperation to serve international capacity collaboration.
As a key part of CACIE, the forum showcased WXUT's work in Sino-foreign cooperative education and gave vocational colleges a platform for policy briefing, peer learning and resource matching. The university said it will use the event to align with the Vocational Education Law, keep industry-education integration at its core and build a base for skilled talent serving international capacity cooperation.
(Reporting and photos: Li Ruoshui, Office of International Exchange and Cooperation; reviewed by Li Xiang)
CACIE 2026 in Beijing
Gong Fanghong, Secretary of the CPC Party Committee of WXUT, Delivers Remarks
The Sub-forum in Session
The Roundtable Discussion
